Betsie van der Meer is a London, UK based photographer working for a wide
range of international clients.

Betsie van der Meer is based in London. She shoots assignments for international advertising and design agencies. Recent campaigns include Johnson&Johnson, NatWest, T-Mobile, Barclays, Twinings, Habitat, TKmaxx.
Her personal work has been exhibited in a variety of solo and group shows including Naarden Fotofestival, the Netherlands, Les Rencontres d'Arles and the National Portrait Gallery, London. Her exhibitions have explored memories and the way people shape and relate to their environment.
Her photographs have resulted in several industry awards and prizes including the Association of Photographers Awards, the David Sproxton Award, and the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize.
Betsie grew up in Oud-Beijerland, in the Netherlands. She studied photography in The Hague and Bournemouth before moving to London. She assisted photographers and worked with commercial film directors before gaining an MA at the London College of Communication.

Number of Titles: 7

PORTFOLIO-1

FARM

Farm is a personal work which explores Betsie's memories of the family's ancestral home in the south-west of the Netherlands. Prompted by the imminent demolition of the original farmhouse, she went back to photograph it and document the changing nature of the farm.Many farms have become unprofitable within the changing economies of Europe and, more specifically, the way in which land use has been reconstituted in the Netherlands. What has happened to the house symbolises many of the wider processes that are happening to farming families in the area.
Farm won the Andrew Sproxton Award, the Association of Photographers Awards ( silver awards - personal project ) and has been exhibited at Naarden Fotofestival, the Netherlands and Les Rencontres d'Arles (book exhibition). The book "Farm" has been producted by KesselsKramer, text written by Tyler Wisnand,published by Pinken publishing and is available at www.schaden.com or info@betsievandermeer.com
ibsn 9-809557-1-x

LOST ISLAND

Tiengemeten is a small island in the south of the Netherlands. For generations, it was predominantly occupied by seven farming families.
On the 700 hectares of the island, the Dutch nature reserve foundation, Natuurmonumenten, started its largest nature development project in the Netherlands: Tiengemeten was to become a natural island with no room for farming. The farmers were bought out and had to leave their homes and land.
Betsie grew up near Tiengemeten and her family leased land on the island. She visited the island over a two year period, recording the changing landscape: fields that became fallow, derelict farms that lost their function.
Lost Island is a follow-up on her book Farm.
The series symbolises the sweeping changes that are taking place in the Dutch country side, farming is disappearing and the land is being used for other purposes.

HONEY

OH I DO LIKE

"Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside I do like to be beside the sea! I do like to stroll upon the Prom, Prom, Prom! Where the brass bands play: "Tiddely-om-pom-pom!"
This is a popular British music hall song about the singers love of the seaside.
I visited several british seaside towns during summer and I photographed teenagers hanging out with their friends on the beach.
Since this song's first recording in 1909, a lot has changed, but there will always be teenagers spending time at british seasides.

DAHAB

Over the past 30 years the Sinai has become a tourist destination due to it's natural settings, rich coralreefs and biblical history. Large numbers of Egyptians have moved to the area to work in tourism while at the same time development has robbed native bedouin of their grazing lands and fishing grounds. Bedouin have lived in Dahab for over 800 years . Government policies and a desire for improved standards of living led most bedouin to become settled citizens rather than stateless nomadic herders. They often lead semi nomadic lives living half the year in houses in Dahab and the oher half living in tents in the desert.

PORTFOLIO-2

Twinings, agency Adam and Eve, London.

Number of Captions: 130

National Portrait Gallery- Taylor Wessing awards-2008.

Homesense, TKmaxx.

Home sense, TKMaxx.

Twinings, agency Adam and Eve, London.

Homesense, TKMaxx.

Acevue, Johnson &johnson, Them agency, London.

Acevue, Johnson&johnson, Them agency, London.

T mobile, agency Tribal DDB, Germany.

T mobile, agency Tribal DDB Germany.

T mobile, tribal DDB, Germany.

Tmobile, Tribal DDB Germany.

Homesense, TKMaxx.

Homesense,TKMaxx.

Homesense,TKmaxx.

Photo (1907) of my great grand father and mother in front of the farm. My grandfather is standing on the left holding the little bike ,My family has lived in this farmhouse for four generations.